Courtney Wright, assistant professor in the School of Communication Studies, examines relational communication and conflict. In instructional settings, she investigates difficult student-teacher interactions, with special attention to academic disappointment and the factors that influence how undergraduates communicate with instructors about grades.
Most recently Wright was recognized for her paper, Examining the silence of academic disappointment: A typology of students’ reasons for not discussing disappointing grades with instructors, when she received the top paper award at the Instructional Development Division of the Southern States Communication Association (SSCA). The paper appeared in the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 13(5), 46-60. Her paper offers insights into how instructors can manage grade conversations more effectively and improve students’ overall educational experiences.
Wright also received the 2013 Faculty Research Award from the College of Communication and Information and a 2013-2014 Southeastern Conference Faculty Travel Grant to collaborate with a colleague at Louisiana State University on research examining social cognition and teasing.